Management Committee

Directors & Trustees

Lama Yeshe Rinpoche - Director & Trustee

Lama Yeshe Rinpoche is project director of Holy Isle and he is Abbot of the Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland which houses Samye College, a world-renown centre for mindfulness training. The Mindfulness Association run Msc courses there in collaboration with Aberdeen University.. Lama Yeshe is regarded by his students as one of the finest meditators in the Western world.

Ann Davies - Finance, Director & Trustee

Ann is a practising accountant who is responsible for all aspects of the financial running of the charity. Ann has worked in the accounting profession for over 35 years and is currently an accountant for a motor dealership in Cardiff. Ann was a Founder Member of Samye Foundation Wales and has been a Trustee and Treasurer for the charity since its inception in 2006.

Anthony has been a practitioner of meditation and mindfulness for over 30 years. He is a qualified psychotherapist and mindfulness instructor who is also a popular teacher of meditation. Anthony is responsible for running meditation classes and workshops at the centre. In addition, he is responsible for interviewing new therapists as well as chairing the therapists committee at the Mindfulness and Well-Being Centre. Anthony was a Founder Member of Samye Foundation Wales and has been a Trustee and Director since its inception in 2006.

Minu Mandora - Director & Trustee

Minu has been part of Samye Foundation Wales since 2006. She has been involved in supporting the work and received teachings from many visiting teachers to the Centre. She has attended a month long silent retreat with Rob Nairn, internationally renowned mindfulness trainer, in South Africa in November 2007. Minu works in Rhonnda Cynon Taf organising and delivering self management courses for people with long term illness – (EPP) Educating Programmes for Patients. She has undergone training to be a Mental Health First Aid instructor.She has been teaching Tai Chi Qigong at the SFW centre for over a year and is a yoga instructor of over 6 years experience. Minu has worked in HR for Cardiff & Vales NHS trust and prior to that in dealing with domestic abuse while working for Women’s Aid.

Photo of Gelong Thubten courtesy of Tony Bartholomew

Gelong Thubten - Director & Trustee

Gelong Thubten is a Buddhist monk of the Kagyu Tibetan Tradition. He is from Samye Ling in Scotland, the first and largest Tibetan Monastery in the West. He specialises in teaching mindfulness and meditation in the corporate world, using a non-religious approach, as well as in hospitals, schools, prisons and addiction rehab centres. He has spent more than five years in strict meditation retreats to further his training and he teaches internationally. He has worked with the NHS, Morrisons, Google, McCain, legal and financial institutions and several other major corporations. Thubten is director of Kagyu Samye Dzong Cardiff, Kagyu Samye Dzong Scarborough and a trustee of ROKPA Switzerland.

Ioan Evans - Director & Trustee

Ioan graduated from Aberystwyth University with a Computer Science degree (BSc) and is a director / shareholder for a handful of IT based businesses for over 10 years. The businesses that he is involved in are focused on delivering IT solutions for businesses by giving business consultancy that helps people focus on what they aspire to achieve then placing software solutions in place to enable the business to implement their strategy.

Rashpal Sing - Director & Trustee

Rashpal Singh is a qualified and an accredited Psychotherapist/Counsellor. He is accredited with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), a Director and fellow of the Institute of Welfare (IW), Member of the British Association of Behavioural Counselling & Psychotherapy (BABCP) he is also registered with the United Kingdom Register of Counsellors (UKRC) and member and network co-ordinator for South Wales/West BACP Workplace.

Sujatha Thaladi - Patron

Sujatha is a postgraduate in Chemistry from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India with 12 years experience teaching the subject. She then went into business with her husband sourcing IT specialists in India for clients in the UK and students for Welsh universities.

Sujatha has worked in the third sector in Cardiff for over nine years in different roles. She is a qualified mentor and an accredited mentor trainer.

Among her other accomplishments are roles as a radio announcer and reporter on Indian national television. She had a regular column in India’s national newspaper, The Times of India, offering career counselling to its readers.

Sujatha is a board member of the Cardiff Third Sector Council (C3SC), Voluntary Community Services (VCS) and a Member of the Planning committee for the annual Minorities Ethnic Communities Health Fair.

Sujatha is a single parent, having been widowed at a young age. She has brought up two daughters who have both graduated from Welsh Universities.

Corporate Team

Lorraine Harris - Chief Executive & Project Manager

Lorraine is responsible for the delivery and management of the corporate mindfulness training programme for businesses operating in Caerphilly County Borough and throughout South Wales. She is a long-time practitioner of meditation and a qualified mindfulness instructor whose corporate clients include Esgyn Housing Swansea, Ty Newydd Housing, Whitbread, Cardiff and Vale College, a leading financial services company, Foster Care Associates and Velindre Hospital. With a background in banking, accounts, supervision, IT consultancy, office administration and events management, she understands the daily stresses that organisations are facing today with the current economic climate. She has worked in varied and busy environments such as part of the project implementation team in the banking industry, with it’s head office in Sheffield, managed the accounts for an asphalting company and worked as a registrar at Bereavement Services, Cardiff Council. She organised many conferences and events for The National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) as well as edited their quarterly magazine. She also holds a BSC (Hons) Computing from Glamorgan University, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from University of Wales Institute Cardiff (Cardiff Met) and a Mindfulness Instructor certificate from the Mindfulness Association and is a member of the Chartered Management Institute. She recently completed a leadership programme with LEAD Wales with Swansea and Lancaster University. In her spare time, Lorraine is a trustee of MENFA in Cardiff Bay. Lorraine is also a tutor for The Mindfulness Association.

Her Qualifications include:

BSC (Hons) Computing

Post Graduate Cert Education (specialising in Mindfulness) 2011

One Year Certificate in Leadership Skills with LEAD Wales, University of Swansea and University of Lancaster. 2012

A one-year Compassion Training course run by the Mindfulness Association.(2012)

Support teacher for the one Year Compassion Training (2012/2013)

Currently training in:

One Year’s Mindfulness Supervision Training with OPAL

Jon Evans - Administrator

Jon Evans is the administrator responsible for day to day operations at our Cardiff centre.

Therapists Committee

Dr. Anna Polya - Co-chair of the Therapists Committee

Anna is qualified as a family therapist and has worked with children and families, both in healthcare and other settings, for many years. Her work with families is inspired and guided by her mindfulness practice. Her experience in this field has led to her being a member of the therapist committee at Samye Foundation Wales. Anna sits on the interview panel for prospective therapists wishing to hire rooms at the centre. She is also a yoga teacher, she studied with Philip Jones and has taught in the Cardiff area for twelve years. Her yoga teaching focuses on integrating mind, body and breath, and currently she offers regular yoga and mindfulness workshops at the centre with Lorraine Harris.

Volunteers

Louise Tribble - Volunteer Co-Ordinator

Louise is one of our key volunteers and gives generously of her time in many areas of Samye Foundation. She takes the primary role of volunteer co-ordinator. Louise also organises events, runs a group Cardiff Creative Friends to provide a welcoming environment to people with anxiety and depression, to make friends through creative activities.

Louise has a BA (Hons) in Education and Early Childhood Studies. She's recently written an illustrated book called Mindful Millie which will be out soon and is aimed at young children. The book aims to introduce children to mindfulness in a way that they can understand, setting the stage for their future wellbeing.

You can follow Louise's journey as an author on Facebook at Mindful Milli﻿e